A plateful of food and a case of the blues

MELISSA PRACHTCompass Editor

Published Friday, April 15, 2005

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One of St. Augustine's tastiest festivals, the EPIC Celebration of Spring, will bring together for your pleasure the best cuisine the city has to offer this weekend. But the festival known for its gastronomical greatness might also surprise you with its fine taste in music this year. In addition to two local bands, the Wes Talton Trio and Bob & Joline Patterson and the Friends of Mine Band, the festival headliner will be -- straight outta' Austin -- rock-tinged blues musician Nelson Norwood.

So don't worry about the repercussions of stuffing yourself with samples from 30 of St. Augustine's best restaurants, including Cortesse's Bistro, Fusion Point, South Beach Grill and many more -- it should be easy to dance it off.

'Long, Loud & Sweaty' Nelson Norwood

Austin-based blues musician Nelson Norwood often works with Stevie Ray Vaughan's former rhythm section, Double Trouble, but he says he doesn't feel pressure to live up to the city's most famous musical son.

"No, I do my own thing," said Norwood, who recently released his CD "Long, Loud & Sweaty" featuring Double Trouble. "But, I have the same influences as he had, so I sounded like him ten years before I even heard him."

Norwood, who grew up in Maine and Nova Scotia -- not the first locales you'd think would spawn a blues prodigy -- said he was influenced Stevie Ray's brother Jimmie Vaughan and his band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, as well as the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King.

St. Augustine will get a chance to hear Norwood's unique rollicking blues style during the EPIC festival from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. with an intermission on Saturday at the Special Events Field.

Norwood said his first introduction to the blues came through the Rolling Stones, which explains his rock and blues hybrid style. He started playing guitar at 10 years old, and by 12 had found in the Stones a wealth of inspiration and a trail back to roots music.

"I read a lot as a kid and I read books on the Rolling Stones. Through them, I was introduced to Muddy Waters and one thing led to another."

It was hard for him to find much information on the blues when he was growing up.

"Nobody was into the blues in the '70s and '80s," he said.

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Wes Talton will perform with the Wes Talton Trio.

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But when the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd movie "The Blues Brothers" came out in 1980, the mainstream began to take notice. He credits the Baby Boomer generation's move into power in Hollywood in the '90s with the sudden infusion of blues into films and TV.

Meanwhile, Austin in the '70s and '80s was in its hallowed blues era. Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan were based there and the city attracted the top blues performers. Eventually, Norwood migrated there, too, and established a solid music career.

These days, Austin's blues scene is "not what it used to be," Norwood said.

Famous Sixth Street is more of an entertainment strip than a music center now and while there is a lot of film, art and musical activity there -- "you can go get your oil changed and see a live band," he said -- "quantity doesn't always mean quality."

Most of the blues greats who are still around and younger ones like Norwood have to spend a lot of time in Europe to be able to make a living.

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Bob and Joline Patterson will perform with the Friends of Mine Band.

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"It's always been that way for jazz and blues musicians," he said. "Even Stevie Ray had to do it."

Ramblin' man Wes Talton and the Wes Talton Trio

Lead guitarist and vocalist for his eponymous trio, Wes Talton brings a world of different influences to his blues/rockabilly sound. Talton, 46, has spent most of his life in Northeast Florida, but during the '80s and '90s he played in Europe, first with a Swedish band, then with a Croatian band in Yugoslavia.

Strangely enough, the Swedish band, The Radio "sounded a lot like Tom Petty," Talton said.

The Croatian band, Atomic Shelter, was hard-rock and "very politically-charged," he said, an anti-communist band in communist Yugoslavia during the most recent escalation of Croatian -- Serbian violence.

Now he fronts the Wes Talton Trio, playing with drummer Bruce Stewart and bassist and guitarist Danny Roberts, who played with Tom Petty back in the rock star's early days. When the group that has been together for about 10 years performs at the EPIC festival from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Saturday, expect to hear a mix of originals and covers of songs by artists as diverse as Hank Williams, Radiohead and Gillian Welch, as well as blues songs from the 1940s and '50s.

Asked what well-known band the Wes Talton Trio sounds like, Talton said, "Well, I'd like to say we sound like the Rev. Horton Heat, but we probably aren't quite that good."

Folk rockers Bob and Joline Patterson and the Friends of Mine Band

Well-known and loved around the Florida folk music scene, Bob and Joline Patterson and the Friends of Mine Band will perform their mix of folk, blues and ragtime at the EPIC festival from noon to 1 p.m. and from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

A music veteran, Bob Patterson was part of successful folk-rock band Elizabeth in the 1960s and had the opportunity to open for acts such as Janis Joplin, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe and the Fish and Muddy Waters.

"I played with (Elizabeth) until I almost went deaf," said Patterson, referring to the years before plugged-in musicians knew to wear earplugs.

In 1967, Patterson made St. Augustine his home base and soon he and his wife, bassist Joline Patterson, started touring the country. Now Patterson plays around Florida with Joline and often with the Friends of Mine Band, comprised of Dick Kraft, Chip Herrington and Bill Temme.

He describes his ensemble as a "variety band."

"I write a lot of stuff in the folk/country vein," he said, "and we also do re-creations of music played in Florida in the 1940s and '50s, a style that is a combination of blues and ragtime."

At any time, the band might perform ragtime songs by Jellyroll Morton and blues by the Rev. Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt.

EPIC Celebration of Spring schedule

SATURDAY

Taste of St. Augustine

Thirty of the area's best restaurants will compete for the TOStAs (Taste of St. Augustine Awards), including South Beach Grill, Seafood Kitchen, Beachcomber, Woody's BBQ, Barrier Island Inn & Restaurant, Nalu's Tropical Take Out, Old City House Inn & Restaurant, Caf 11, Honey Baked Ham Co. & Cafe, Crispers, The Reef, Cortesse's Bistro, Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille, A1A Aleworks, Gypsy Cab Company, Amici's, Borillo's Pizza, Fusion Point, Manatee Caf and many more. Awards will be given for Best Family Dining, Best Ethnic, Best Upscale, Best Dessert and People's Choice.

The Taste of St. Augustine will be held from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Special Events Field off of West Castillo Drive. Admission is $2 and food and beverage tickets are $1 each, with samples costing between two and five tickets.

Music

Noon to 1 p.m. -- Bob & Joline Patterson and the Friends of Mine Band

1:30 to 3 p.m. -- The Wes Talton Trio

3 to 4:30 p.m. -- Bob & Joline Paaterson and the Friends of Mine Band

4:30 to 7:30 p.m. -- Nelson Norwood and the Nelson Norwood Band

SATURDAY and SUNDAY

Flower and Garden Expo

The expo will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the St. Johns County Agricultural Center, off of I-95 exit 318 at S.R. 16.

Admission is $5, good for both days. Children under 11 will be admitted for free. Free parking on site and overflow parking available at the Belz Factory Outlet World with a free shuttle running from Belz to the Expo every 20 minutes.